Would like your opinions

[EMS503]

I am going to be helping a friend set up a S/W fish only tank.
Using dead coral and crushed coral for substrate.
Size of the tank will be either a 75 gal. or 120 gal.
(Has to talk to the wife ).
If he uses a sump partioned for a foam block and carbon would a cannister filter still be needed? Sump would be used basically as an area to hide heater and other items. I reccomended the sump as he may convert this tank to a reef in the future.

Also how deep should the substrate be in a fish only tank?

Is a protein skimmer needed for a fish only tank?

Type of fish still undecided Due to tank size but he is considering Tangs & Lion size fish.


Thanks
John

 

[clownfish]

For what's worth, I'm using a crushed coral substrate but now that I'm into the hobby a bit more, I wish had gone with sand.

 

[Anemoneman]

I would use less than 1" CC, more like 1/4". It will need to be vacuumed weekly to keep nitrates (and algae) down. With a sump I would use bioballs or similar media for the biofilter unless you can talk him into LR instead of dead corals (which will get ugly after a month anyway). I wouldn't use the canister unless that is going to house the biomedia. I would recommend a skimmer.